Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to operating a wind turbine safely and, more particularly, to using a safety system to determine whether a wind turbine is operating within an operational envelope.
Description of the Related Art
To prevent catastrophic failure that would prevent the turbine from being able to operate (e.g., the blade detaching and damaging other portions of the wind turbine), a failure detection system may be used. If the detection system identifies a structural failure, the operation mode of the turbine may be changed to prevent the catastrophic failure. For example, the turbine may be removed from the utility grid until a cracked blade is fixed or replaced.
In one example, the wind turbine may obtain data from a plurality of different sensors associated with the turbine. This data may then be used to predict a failure of one or more components in the turbine. If the data indicates that the wind turbine is behaving outside of predefined parameters, the wind turbine may change its operation mode to prevent structural and catastrophic failures. However, detecting a problem before structural failure occurs using data from a plurality of sensors may be a difficult and time consuming process.